[LizLemon]

Long story short (will try at least)....my daughter--a child of divorce--is on vacation for two weeks with her dad, then two weeks with me, and then on to band camp for the first time! She is stressed because she has to have about 7 songs memorized by the end of camp. She is using a very nice school owned tenor that she will be playing in marching band. She has it with her dad now so she can practice, but the problem with taking it with us is that the last week of our vacation we will be on a cruise. We can't leave it in the car. My husband found a storage facility inside the Orlando airport that will store it for us, but I was wondering if she can practice/work on her memorization on her alto, but using the tenor music. I wouldn't lug the tenor onto the cruise ship, but her alto case it much smaller, and I'd have no problem taking that on the ship (thank goodness she switched from the bari--that was a beast!).

Will playing the tenor music on the alto sax work? (I did a googling but found a lot on transposing music--I don't want her to have to do that because I think that will mess up her memorization).

Thank you so much...
From a mom who is stressing about her stressed out daughter!

 

[GHawk]

Yes, practicing on alto will be fine. The fingering is the same as tenor. It will sound a little weird to her because she's used to the lower sound of the tenor but it'll work fine for memorizing the notes.

 

[littlewailer]

Yes, you can practice the notes the same way. But As soon as she goes to play tenor the pitch will be completely different. Which might throw her off.

 

[LizLemon]

Thank you both! I feel relived that this is the case. I really didn't want to have to take the nice school instrument across the country and then find a place to store it. I feel much more comfortable taking her own alto instead. I think she should be ok adjusting to the different pitch--that will be easier for her than memorizing this music which is 80% of her first quarter grade.

 

[Saxistential]

Thank you both! I feel relived that this is the case. I really didn't want to have to take the nice school instrument across the country and then find a place to store it. I feel much more comfortable taking her own alto instead. I think she should be ok adjusting to the different pitch--that will be easier for her than memorizing this music which is 80% of her first quarter grade.

Added benefit will be the firmer embouchure that altos require. She may even notice marked improvement in her tone on the tenor.

Whenever I need to brush up my chops for an upcoming gig on tenor, I always start out rehearsing on alto first, then switch. It's far too easy to get away w/ blowing tenor w/ slack chops.

Unless she's improvising by ear, the pitch change won't matter at all compared to the muscle memory in her fingers.

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